


Getting some Perspective

by Ncredible



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Ava Cameo, F/F, F/M, Feelings, Felicity mention, Heartbreak, Oliver tells Sara about Earth 2 Laurel, mentions of the famous red pen, oliver giving relationship advice, sara regreting breaking up with ava
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-21
Updated: 2018-03-25
Packaged: 2019-04-05 12:19:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14044146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ncredible/pseuds/Ncredible
Summary: Sara goes to talk to Oliver about her recent break up because she thinks he might be able to understand the brokeness she feels about being a killer and trying to leave that in her past. Oliver gives some advice sorta, but ends up talking a lot about his own experiences with Felicity.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I love Oliver and Sara relationship. I wish these two were on screen together for more than just a crossover event where they speak like two words to each other. I also think that they both would be uniquely qualified to give each other love advice because they both seem to struggle with some of the same things early on when they try dating someone they might actually care about.

“This is a surprise,” Oliver says jumping down from the salmon ladder as I walk out of the elevator. 

“Felicity said you were down here training,” I tell him walking over to where he is standing. 

 

“Among other things,” he agrees. 

“Everything okay?” hoping whatever is on his mind is something we can fight because I don’t know how to bring up what I came down here to discuss with him. 

“Well I could be going to jail for a very long time for vigilantism and several counts of murder. My former team hates me, and I nearly killed Rene a few weeks ago.” He tells me toweling off the sweat from his face.

I stare at him trying to unpack what he just said. I knew he was under indictment for being the Green Arrow, but I had no idea that it had gotten so bad after we all went our separate ways after the whole Earth- X thing. I need to start coming back to 2018 more often, just to check in on my dad and Ollie, there is always some bomb they have drop on me when I come back. 

“Actually, I’m glad you came by Sara, there’s something we need to talk about and it might take some processing. Quentin and I thought you needed to know, we just haven’t found a good time to get in touch with you, it’s been intense here since Earth X. Your dad and I haven’t agreed…”

“Ollie,” I say interrupting him because it really didn’t sound like something we can go beat up and I only have enough headspace for one personal issue at a time right now.

“Yea,” Oliver says totally focused on me.

“How do you make it work with Felicity?” Oliver looks at me curiously trying to figure out what I am really asking. I try to clarify, “I mean she’s someone you take home to mom and dad. Someone who hasn’t seen what we have or done what we have done. She’s not…” 

“…a killer,” Oliver finishes for me. 

“Yea,” I agree glad that he understands a little about why I am here. 

Oliver walks over to where the suits are lined up and stands in front of the Green Arrow suits, “you know I came home to right my father’s wrongs. To stop the Undertaking. I never planned on bringing anyone into my crusade. This was going to be mission alone, but one day I walked into the IT department of Queen Consolidated and this woman with a red pen in between her lips made me smile. It was the first time I remember smiling since before Lian Yu.” 

“When she came into the fold because Walter was kidnapped; she was only going to stay on as long as it took to get him back. After time went by, I got to know her, but I promised myself that when we found Walter I would let her go. Find someone with her computer skills when and if I needed another hacker.” 

“But you didn’t. Six years later she’s still down here with you.” I say.

“Then I started to tell myself that partners weren’t a bad thing, and after Slade Felicity and I tried to go on a date, but I didn’t notice someone putting a tracker on me and the restaurant got bombed. I stepped away because I couldn’t let her get hurt. I had to keep my focus on the streets. After everything with the League, Felicity and I got away from everything and some days I wish we had stayed in Ivy Town. It might have been boring but the darkness within was easier to keep at bay and not think about when I am not facing down society’s worst. Coming back, I wasn’t able keep the darkness at bay and we couldn’t handle the changes.”

“Nor does an illegitimate son,” I remark. One of the last conversations Laurel and I had was about William. 

“I have a hard time opening up about the past and I have an even harder time talking about the past even with Felicity. After Prometheus held me, I was convinced that everyone would be better without me, if I had never come back. William would still have his mother. Thea would have hers and never have been put through the hell Malcolm put her through. Tommy… and Laurel…Laurel might not….” Oliver chokes. 

I walk over to him and put hand on his shoulder, “Laurel wasn’t your fault. Laurel wouldn’t want you to blame yourself. I don’t, neither does Dad.” 

Oliver takes a minute and turns to me, “I know Felicity deserves someone less damaged, why she continues to choose me? I don’t know, but I do know that having her by my side makes me a better person even if the demons never really go away. Something I have learned by being with Felicity is sometimes its good to have someone to come home to, even if they don’t exactly get the demons, but are still willing to stay and try to understand what happened. When Felicity and I traveled after the League I told her that I tortured the General who let the Alpha/ Omega virus which killed Maseo, uh… Sarab, and Tatsu son’s Akio. I was so angry that he was dead, and I didn’t feel like a monster until I saw Tatsu face. I had been thinking about that day a lot and I told Felicity about it and she told me that she knew who I was inside and that one moment didn’t make me a monster and she reminded me of that again after Prometheus convinced me that I enjoy killing.”

After Ollie was done talking he went over to Felicity’s chair to get his hoodie and I find myself wiping the tears from my eyes. I didn’t know what had brought Sarab to the League or that Ollie had known him. 

After composing myself I finally tell Oliver why I am here, “I met someone, Ava, it’s the first time since Nyssa, really that I wanted to try for something normal. Dates at fancy restaurants. Movies. That kind of thing.”

 

“What happened?” he asks.

“The death totem,” I say still cursing that damn things existence. 

“The what?” Oliver asks.

“Magic. The six totems of Zambasi. It’s all part of the anachronisms the Legends and I have been dealing with.” I quickly sum up.

“Okay… what does this death totem have to do with you and Ava?” Oliver asks. 

“It called to me and when I put it on. I wasn’t myself. I hurt Ray and the rest of my team.” Oliver stays silent giving me the time to get the story out. “Ava managed to pull me out of Mullus realm again.” I tell him.

“Mullus?” Oliver asks.

“The being that is causing all of the anachronisms.” Oliver nods and I go back to my rant, “I’m damaged. Look at what you and I did. What I did to Nyssa I left her without a word. I wanted to get away from the League, Raz was right I didn’t belong in the League, but I can’t take back what I have done. I left Nyssa without a word, Ollie and when she came back I poisoned myself and it had nothing to do with her. If that is what Nyssa will always remember about me. And then there is Ava. Ollie, I could hurt her. If it wasn’t the death totem, it could be the bloodlust I still deal with.” I tell Oliver laying it out there. Oliver and I silence, it was something I had actually come to really admire about us. That we can sit in silence without needing to talk to fill the silence. 

“You might…” Oliver begins breaking our comfortable silence. 

“I might what?” I ask. 

“You might leave Ava, a bit Sara damaged.” Oliver quickly adds, “What I mean is I don’t think you or any of the Legends or Ava herself would let you hurt her because of the death totem or the bloodlust. Your relationship could end poorly, and it’ll hurt you both. If Ava knows about Lian Yu and the League and hasn’t run her off, I think you might owe it to yourself to see where it could go.” 

“How can you so sure that I deserve this?” I ask. 

“For me, despite everything, every lie, every kill, every play Felicity didn’t agree with, she stood by me. Felicity was everything I never knew I needed and I’ve come to believe that after everything. You and I deserve a little bit of happiness.” 

“Happiness looks good on you, Ollie,” I tell him. 

“Did any of this help? Advice isn’t my area. That’s usually what John or Barry are for.” He says seriously. 

“I think you would understand what I am going through more.” I tell him.

“Well I’m always here,” he tells me.

“How do I get Ava to even see me? I kind of already broke up with her.” I say.

“Be patient and when comes back into your life. Be honest. Take it from me, sometimes that’s all that needed.” Oliver laughs. 

I give Oliver a hug and a kiss on the cheek for the advice and begin to walk towards the elevator, but then I turn back and look at Oliver remembering he wanted to tell me something when I first got here, “Hey, Ollie?”

“Yea.” He says turning to look at me.

“What was it you wanted to tell me before we got all emotional.”

“Oh… um… you might want to come sit back down.” He tells me seriously. 

“Sounds ominous.” I joke, but I sit back down when Oliver doesn’t share my amusement at my joke.

“It’s about Earth 2.” Oliver begins.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sara and Oliver discuss Earth 2 Laurel.
> 
> There is cameo of Ava Sharpe at the end. :)

“Laurel’s alive?” I ask again for the millionth time since Oliver told me about Laurel’s Earth 2 doppelgänger.

“No. The Laurel we lost is still gone,” Oliver says firmly, but gently. He has been separating the two since I started asking. I stand up and begin pacing in front of   
Oliver who is still seated on the steps of the platform.

“How long have you known?” I ask looking over at him.

Oliver lowers his head and picks it back up and answers, “about a year and half.”

“And Barry has known since before he messed up the timeline.” I accuse.

“Yes, but he and his team thought it would be easier for us if we didn’t know she was on our Earth.” Oliver defends.

“So, what made the Great Barry Allen decide that you got to know my sister was alive and not me?” I shout at him.

“She isn’t your sister!” Oliver states firmly as he stands up. His volume raising, but not quite matching mine. The takes a breath and continues, “She has Laurel’s looks. She walks like her. But she isn’t our Laurel.”

“You didn’t answer my question.” I say more calmly. Oliver looks at me and starts replaying the conversation in his head, so I prompt him, “when did Barry tell you?”

“After he told us about Flashpoint. After the aliens. He told me that he had Laurel’s Earth 2 doppelgänger locked up in the pipeline...”

“He locked her up because she was from a different Earth, Oliver, I swear I’m gonna...”

“She was in the Pipeline because she was working for Zoom.” He said cutting me off from what I intended to do to Barry Allen when I got my hands on him.

“What?” I say.

“Barry and his team met her because she came here with Zoom. She was loyal to him or to just surviving, I’m not sure. As a team they decided that all of us, me, Felicity, you and your family had grieved enough for her that it would be cruel to reopen the wound by telling us about Black Siren, that’s what she calls herself. She was in Central City when their Particle Accelerator exploded.”

I sit down back down, “then why is she here?”

“Adrian Chase, Prometheus, freed her from the Pipeline. And had he come down here and pretend to be our Laurel. Sara, I bought it. I wanted to believe it was that simple. I believed her when she said that you pulled her from the timeline, so she never died. I didn’t question it I just was just happy to have her back. It wasn’t until she used her sonic cry that I knew it couldn’t be our Laurel.” Oliver says, and he sits back down with me.

“Why did you tell my dad and not me,” I ask.

“She kidnapped Thea and him last year.”

“What!?”

“Black Siren sided with Adrian Chase last year. Earlier this year, she was working for Cayden James and under his command she killed a man very close to Dinah. Dinah is out from blood and Black Siren is injured and her powers aren’t working correctly. To avoid another run in with Dinah she has impersonated our Laurel to the media.” Oliver says clearly summing up some of Laurel’s finer moments the last two years on this Earth. 

“So, your saying...”

“That as far as the world is consider Laurel Lance is alive and well.” Oliver finishes.

I sit there with this news that this Laurel has taken over my big sister’s life. She is sleeping on Dad’s couch. The media thinks Laurel is alive, “Mom? What about my mom, what did you tell her? Does she know?”

“Quentin called her, I didn’t ask what he told her, but she won’t be anywhere near Black Siren, I promise.”  
This is all so much to take in. Life was so much simpler without the multiverse. I wipe more tears from my eyes and take a deep breath and tell Oliver something I’ve never told anyone else, “I had the chance to save Laurel.”

Oliver gives me a sideways look but doesn’t say anything.

“Last year when we were dealing with the Legion of Doom, I had the Spear of Destiny in my hands and I saw Laurel. We were on her couch watching the Wizard of Oz. It felt so real. It could have been. I could have made it real.” I think about those few minutes with Laurel all the time.

“Why didn’t you?”

“She seemed happy?” I say, but that wasn’t quite the right word, “at peace. I don’t know how, but I was talking to... her ghost or something. I knew that wherever she was, she was at peace and I couldn’t take her out of that just because I missed her.”

Oliver is silent for a long time before he answers, “for what it’s worth I think you made the right decision.” I rest my head on his shoulder and we sit there in silence for while.

“Sara...” Oliver begins but stops.

“Yea?”

“Never mind.”

“Ollie, what is it?”

“Do you remember what happened after you died before the Lazarus Pit?”

I inhale deeply before answering, “a question for another day.”

“Okay.” We go back to silence.

“I wanna see her,” I finally decide.

“I don’t think that is a good idea. At least not until you and your father talk.” Oliver says.

“And why is that?”

“Quentin told me that Black Siren’s dad died when she was still a little girl. Last year, she told me you never came back after the Gambit.” Then he adds, “Neither did I.”

“So, we’ve been dead for over a decade to her?”

“I remember how… intense the reunion was when you came home. Quentin might be able to ease both of you into a meeting, if really wanted too.” Oliver says.

“I should wait. I have Mullus I need to be worried about.” I stand, and Oliver follows suit, “I gotta get out of here.” And I take off towards the elevator and Oliver doesn’t stop me or call after me for that I am grateful.

**

I found myself in the clock tower I stayed in when I first came back to town. It doesn’t look like anyone has been in here for a while. Oliver said that Sin was staying out of trouble and that he looks in on her every once and a while and that Thea has lunch with at least once a month. I turn at the sound of the squeak of the stairs. The fourth from the top always squeaks. I’m surprised to see Ava standing before in the clock tower I used to call home.

“Ava. Hi.” I awkwardly say. Not sure what to do with my hands now.

“Ms. Lance,” Ava greets. I look at the floor, her use of my last name filling me with regret.

“Did something happen with Mullus?” I ask.

“No, the Bureau just had an interesting visitor.”

“Joan of Ark?” I guess trying to keep the mood light.

“Felicity Smoak.”

“What?”

“Felicity Smoak. Overwatch. Oliver Queen’s wife.” Ava repeats.

“I just left Ollie a half an hour ago. Is everyone alright?” I ask wondering what would prompt Felicity to go to the Time Bureau.

“She demanded to see me, then proceeded to babble her way through telling me I needed to deliver this to you.” Ava says holding her hand out that has an envelope in it.

“She bullied her way into see you just get this to me?” I smile because it sounds a lot like Felicity. Girl has a one-track mind when she is focused.

“How can someone who babbles their way through a conversation with a stranger marry someone so monosyllabic, like Mayor Queen?” Ava wonders out loud as I take the envelope from her hand.

“Ollie can be chatty when he wants to be, though I haven’t seen much of that since before the Amazo.” I muse as I open the envelope and stop talking when I see what is in the envelope.

“Sara, is everything okay?”

“Yea,” I choke out because on the sheet of paper in the envelope in Oliver’s handwriting is simply: We deserve to find happiness. I found mine. Give yourself a chance to find yours. Love, Ollie. 

“Sara, are you sure?”

I look up at her, “Ava, I made a huge mistake.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always thank you for reading.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Moving forward this story will focus almost exclusively on Legends. I don't have anything planned that would have any of the characters from Arrow in the story.

“What are you saying Sara? What was a mistake?” Ava asks coming closer.

“I want you. Being with you is the happiest I have felt in a long time. I had butterflies in my stomach. Just seeing you pop up on my screen always brought a smile to my face. I just... I want you.” I break down. God, I want Ava so much. I just want to get lost in her.

“Sara...”

“I don’t know how to do normal anymore, but for you, I would try anything if it meant I could be with you.” I say.

Ava looks like she did the night I told her I couldn’t do this anymore, “then why?”

“I don’t want to ruin you. I care too much for you to be another casualty. I need you to be happy...”

Interrupting me, Ava says, “You, Sara Lance, make me happy. And I told you I don’t want normal. I don’t need normal. Genghis Khan would be a great date.” I smile briefly at the reference to my second date idea.

“I just don’t want to hurt you, and if you stay with me that’s what’s going to happen.” I tell her. Ollie might have been able to find some happiness with Felicity, but he isn’t death. The Death Totem didn’t choose him. 

“Sara, I make my own choices about who I want in my life. And I want you. And we can figure out Death Totems and Bloodlusts together. We make a pretty good team.” 

“You would forgive me after everything I did the other day?” Allowing myself to hope for a future for a minute. 

“Yes, we just have to keep talking.” Ava says, and she grabs my hands and holds them close to her chest. “Don’t shut me out, Sara.” 

“I don’t want too,” I admit and step more into Ava’s space. 

“You are more than just your past,” Ava tells me.

“I want to believe that,” I tell her because I want to. I want to be more than the assassin who took a father away from his daughter. I want to be more than Death. I just want to stay in this moment for as long as possible because I’m not sure if there will be another.

“Sara,” Ava prompts when I look like I might say more.

“I know I shouldn’t ask, but can we just stay in this moment for a little longer?” I ask.

Ava lets go of my hands and more fully pulls me into a tight hug and I wrap my arms around her and breath deeply. Ava always has the faintest scent of strawberries and gun powder. The two scents shouldn’t work together, but it’s so uniquely Ava that I cherish it. Her pillow in my bed still smells of her strawberry shampoo. 

“We can stay here for as long as you want,” Ava promises.

I bury my head deeper into her polyblend suit jacket and let myself relax into the moment. I don’t know how long we stay there in this embrace, but it is the most at peace I have felt since I woke up with that nightmare a few nights ago and Ava put her hand on my heart and calmed me down. Being near Ava just seems to have the ability to center me. Not everything seems like a lost cause in her arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I eagerly await tomorrow's episode. I'm ready to find out what is up with Ava. I am also hoping the break up is just temporary, but this is the CW. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope that Avalance will be back together by the season finale because the relationship is actually really cute and is set up to be a very healthy thing if the writers allow it be. 
> 
> There might be a part two but if there is it would be about Sara finding out about Earth 2 Laurel and what she has been up too for most of Arrow season 6.
> 
> Kudos and Comments are greatly appreciated 
> 
> As always Thank you for reading.


End file.
